It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **M. Sean Molley **
Adam Weaver **
Anthony Bailey **
Bryce Herdt **
Lance Nathan **
Punjit Sharma **
Ryan Faley **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #105

PENT WORDS 21 (hint)

As of this writing, 11 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

This puzzle's grid has six rings and six sections. Each ring contains a series of words placed end to end, reading either clockwise or counterclockwise; all the words in a given ring will read in the same direction. Ring 1 (the outer ring) contains six answers that read clockwise; the starting spaces are numbered in the grid. Clues for the answers in the remaining rings are given in order, but their starting points and direction are for you to determine. The sections (separated by the heavy lines radiating from the center) will help you place the inner rings: in a given section, each ring segment contains all but one of the letters in the next segment outward. In other words, a section's outermost segment contains six letters; the next segment inward contains five of those six letters in some order; and so on, until only one of the original six letters remains.

Arrange the letters in the six starred spaces to form the final answer, a 6-letter word.

* What's a four-letter word for "Online celebrity Walker with the misfortune of sharing his name with a cartoon he hates"?
* Patron Puzzle #13, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a Words Without Friends puzzle. Play a single-player game of Scrabble to make the letters fit into the grid and spell words across and down.
* Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month) will also receive issue #2 of Fox & Badger Magazine! A seven-puzzle meta, "Check Us Out", separates four brothers from exiting their hotel room; can you help them solve it?

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Giovanni Pagano *Edderiofer He **Jack Bross **
Adam Weaver **
Anthony Bailey **
Bryce Herdt **
Lance Nathan *
Punjit Sharma **
Ryan Faley *
Sam Levitin *
Yossi Fendel **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #104

TOUCHWORD (hint)

As of this writing, 10 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

In this puzzle, you must divide the grid into pentominoes (regions containing five cells each), and write a letter in each cell. The rows, reading from left to right, will contain the words hinted at by the ACROSS clues. The letters in the pentominoes, in reading order (left to right starting with the top row), will form the words hinted at by the PENTOMINOES clues; these clues are presented in no particular order. (In the example, the rows spell PLANT, SHARE, and BITES, and the pentominoes spell the words PLANS, TREES, and HABIT.) Use the ACROSS answers to determine where the pentominoes are.

ACROSS (two answers per row):
1 The official language of Argentina / Arboreal name of the professor from Pokémon Gold and Silver
2 ____ E. Coyote / Subdivisons of acts
3 One lacking melanin / With The, video game franchise about the lives of virtual people
4 One of 100 in Scrabble / Quiznos rival
5 Goddess of discord / Plot
6 Nevada city featured in part of Sister Act / Voice box
7 Nation between Finland and Norway / Stamp on a passport
8 "The ____ is in the mail" / Church instrument, often
9 Prepare more ammo / Nick Charles's wife in The Thin Man
10 Canonical Ltd.'s operating system / "Too Much Time on My Hands" group

PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Book divided into suras
* Anti-anxiety drug
* Wrestler ____ Rhodes
* Organization whose name means "table"
* Scar's nephew
* Some trigonometric calculations
* Piece of furniture featured in the opening of The Simpsons
* In need of cleaning
* Joy
* Disastrous thing to happen with oil in the ocean
* Hurrican name retired in 2011
* Vim's partner
* Absinthe ingredient
* Woman's name on the Alabama state quarter
* Of yore
* Down for the ____
* Clean the floor with a brush, perhaps
* Dog-tired

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Edderiofer He **Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **
Adam Weaver **
Anthony Bailey **
Bryce Herdt **
Punjit Sharma *
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Yossi Fendel **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #103

LOGICROSSWORD 4 (hint)

As of this writing, 8 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

This puzzle was written for patron M. Sean Molley, who supports me at the $20+ level on Patreon and is therefore entitled to suggest one word or phrase every month for me to incorporate into a puzzle. His March 2016 suggestion is used here.

In a crossword, words cross each other; in this puzzle, they merely touch. More specifically, every letter shares an edge with at least one identical letter either immediately above or immediately below. The top and bottom rows are considered adjacent. (You can think of it as a diagramless, cylindrical Share-A-Letter puzzle.)

Arrange the letters in the shaded spaces to form the final answer, an 8-letter word.

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Edderiofer He **Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **
Adam Weaver **
Anthony Bailey **
Bryce Herdt **
Lance Nathan **
Punjit Sharma **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Yossi Fendel **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #102

FOXGERYPTICS 3 (hint)

As of this writing, 10 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

Shade in some cells in the grid below, and fill the rest with letters to form words left-to-right and top-to-bottom, crossword style. All words are Scrabble-legal (see scrabble.merriam.com); however, most of the words in the intended solution should be familiar.

There is no “final answer” to this puzzle; just send your completed grid.

* No two black cells share an edge. All the white cells are connected through their edges.

* The words LOOIE, UGLIEST and SENSELESS read horizontally.

* The words ASCOT and NAVIGATOR read vertically.

* The words BEYS, DA, LUV, and URN read somewhere.

* Row 2 contains exactly one black cell; the cell to its immediate left contains the letter L.

* Row 3 contains two 2-letter words, the leftmost of which is a reversal of the two-letter word in column G.

* Row 4 contains the letter T.

* Row 9 contains exactly one K and exactly one S.

* Column A contains exactly one black cell; the letters immediately above and below the black cell do not appear anywhere else in the grid.

* Column D contains two 2-letter words, the topmost of which is a reversal of the two-letter word in row 4.

Support me on Patreon!

If you enjoy my weekly word puzzles, please consider supporting me monthly on Patreon. You'll get sneak peeks at this blog's puzzles, and exclusive puzzles just for patrons. You can support for whatever amount per month fits your budget. Thank you!

Who's the author?

Grant Fikes has been writing logic puzzles in an amateur capacity since 2005, and in a professional capacity since 2013. He serves as the second-most prolific contributor to the blog on Grandmaster Puzzles, behind only Thomas Snyder; his works have also appeared in Akil Oyunlari, in Sudoku Xtra, the United States Puzzle Competition (2012-2014), and in a smartphone app. Grant has also created Kakuro puzzles for Kakuro Conquest (the puzzles haven't appeared yet, for whatever reason). As a budding word puzzle constructor, Grant's puzzles have appeared in the short-lived Will Shortz's Wordplay, in GAMES World of Puzzles, and in the smartphone app Bonza, and his creation Pent Words has won an award from Kadon Enterprises; as an occasional board gamer, his game Battle of LITS has been published by nestorgames and Lyris Laser Studios and is playable on BoardGameArena. On the Internet, Grant has adopted the persona of a purple and cyan fox/badger hybrid.

PLEASE DO:* commission me! I make good puzzles!* become my patron on Patreon! You'll get early access to my word puzzles!* print these puzzles out to solve them on paper* copy and paste these puzzles into your preferred image editor, and solve them there* e-mail me (glmathgrant@gmail.com; I can nudge you towards a solution if you're stuck, or interact with you in other ways)* post non-spoiler comments directly on the blog (i.e., "I like what you did with the 3's", "The logic in the upper left corner was astounding")* share these puzzles with friends and link to this blog

PLEASE DON'T:* spoil the solution in the comments section for all others to see* post completely irrelevant comments (including comments consisting completely of punctuation)* claim these puzzles as your own* make money off of these puzzles without my permission

What's that font?

Since Wordy Wednesday 72, all puzzles on this blog use the royalty-free Tinos font. Hooray for free stuff!

Who made those images?

The purple and cyan mascot on this page is my fox/badger fursona Grant Badger Fox. The blog's banner was made by PunkJax, the image of Grant holding a tip jar was made by Marquis2007, and the "Certified Puzzlemaster" badge was made by Mary Mouse.